Good morning, good afternoon and good evening! Welcome to Smashing English before we start this
video be sure to subscribe because I make new videos all the time and I don't want you to miss
any! So with that said let's get on with the video! Hey! "Hamilton". Okay it's the biggest
thing that's happened to Musical Theater since it began. The music in Hamilton I think is some
of the best music written for the stage ever. I love it. I think it's amazing. And there's so
many words in the soundtrack. If you listen to the Hamilton soundtrack I guarantee you will digest
thousands of English words. So we are going to use the lyrics from Hamilton today to help broaden our
English vocabulary because I am a firm believer that music is one of the best ways to help you
learn English. So come with me and we shall learn some phrases and new words from Hamilton, on with
the show! Let's start with the song "my shot". Now straight away the first line in this song is
"I am not throwing away my shot". That's a very good Lin Manuel Miranda impression I must say.
So let's talk about this line "I am not throwing away my shot". Now to a non-native English speaker
this sentence might sound a bit strange. To "throw away my shot", what does that mean?
So let's talk about this phrase. To "have a shot" at something is to have a chance, an opportunity,
something you've waited your life for, you know, or someone's shot might be a chance to work
alongside the big boss of a company. You know it's their big chance, it's their opportunity, it's
their shot. So if you "throw away your shot" you lose that opportunity, you don't take the chance,
you know, someone says to you "oh would you like to attend this big meeting with the heads
of the company" and you say "no thanks", you're throwing away your shot! So, there you go. Who
knew Hamilton could be so useful? I did.. that's why I made this video. So he says that twice "Hey
I'm not throwing away my shot, I am not throwing away my shot!" and then he says "Hey yo" which is
a rap kind of phrase, don't worry about it, it's not in the English dictionary it's just something
that in rap music - look at me acting like I know rap music. I don't know anything about rap!
But it's a musical kind of sound, like the way Michael Jackson would go "Hee-Hee!" it doesn't
mean anything. In English it's just something they would say. "I'm just like my country, I'm young
scrappy and hungry". Now I'm guessing you know what young and hungry means.
If you don't, I suggest you learn those ones, they're quite useful.
"Scrappy" is a great word, great adjective. If you're scrappy you're usually young,
feisty, ready for a fight, ready to make a difference, you're quite vocal, you're scrappy!
"Hey yo I'm just like my country I'm young scrappy and hungry and I'm not throwing away my
shot!". See look at this, already we've learned a new idiom and we've learned a new adjective.
Thank you Lin Manuel Miranda! Okay moving on to the song "Helpless". This is one of my favourite
songs of all time, but let's learn some English from it. So let's start with the title of the
song. It's an adjective. Helpless in the context of this song helpless means you are beyond help,
you are so.. you know, she is so in love with this man that nothing can help her, nothing
can stop her, nothing can save her. "Well I'm done, I'm in love that's it! I'm beyond help!".
However we can also use helpless for things like puppies or babies. Helpless in that context means
you can't defend yourself, you're just innocent you're completely unable to help yourself.
So let's look at the lyrics from the chorus. So she starts with "boy you got me helpless".
"Boy you got me helpless" let me add two letters into this sentence and it'll make more sense.
"Boy you've got me helpless". So in modern English particularly in the USA and with
music, people tend to take away the "ve" and just say things like "you got me", "you got me
helpless". But actually the real sentence should be "you've got me helpless", "you have got me
helpless". So in this context "got" means to "make someone feel something". So we can say things
like "you know seeing that baby it's getting me all emotional". You know it gets me emotional,
it's getting me emotional. So in this context she's saying "you have", present perfect,
"you have got me helpless". "You have made me helpless". And I bet you thought you wouldn't
learn anything from this video! And she's using the present perfect "you have got me helpless"
because he started making her feel helpless in the past but she still feels helpless now,
so it's something that started in the past and continues to now, present perfect. Moving on, she
says "look into your eyes in the sky's limit". Now I want to focus on "the sky's the limit". The sky
is the limit. This idiom is very common and pretty self-explanatory. She's saying that I looked into
your eyes and now the sky is the limit of how good I am feeling. You know we use the sky as
the limit to explain that something has no limit. But it's saying that something is limitless, you
can do whatever you want, there's no end to this, there's no stopping. Next she says "I'm helpless.
Down for the count and I'm drowning in them". Okay so she's "drowning in his eyes".
Drowning in his eyes, this is quite a romantic phrase that we use to say that
I'm so lost in your eyes, I'm drowning in them! Now, "down for the count". I like this phrase,
this is a useful idiom. Now this comes from boxing, I believe. Where if you are knocked
out in the boxing ring and you are down for the count, when they go "one, two, three, four" - do
they count to ten? I think they count to ten. "one, two, three, four, five" you are down, you're
knocked down, so in a metaphorical sense if you say "I'm down for the count" you are just
you are so overwhelmed with love that she is just knocked out by it. And finally let's pay a visit
to the song "You'll be back". In particular I want to highlight this lovely idiom for you
"cause when push comes to shove I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love".
"When push comes to shove". Lovely phrase! Now when push comes to shove means, when you are
forced to make a decision about something. When you reach the point where a decision or action
needs to be made this is how I act, this is what I say. So "he says that he's so tough and so strong
but when push comes to shove he couldn't hurt a fly". So in this context "cause when push comes
to shove i will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love", so he's saying at the
point when I'm forced to make a decision here, when this all comes to a finale, I will send an
army for you. And there you are, some brand new phrases, some brand new vocabulary from
Hamilton! I hope you enjoyed this video! If you did please give it a like and if you would like
to follow my Instagram the link for that is down below. And also down below is a link where you can
have a one-to-one online English lesson with me, wouldn't that be fun? So have a look down there
and all the links will be there for you! Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time!
Ta-ta!